Top Positioning on Google
Achieving top page positioning on Google for targeted keywords can be compared to winning a competition: To win, a webpage must be stronger than the rest. The best indicator we have of how Google sees the competitive strength of a webpage, based on published research, is the PageRank of the website's HomePage (HPR).
Study of the competitive strength of 122 typical small to medium sized business websites.
4networking.biz, a Business-to-business UK networking group, provides open access to a list of members currently online on the 4N website's HomePage. A snapshot of the 4networking.biz HomePage was taken on 10th January 2012 when there were 122 members online. This cohort provides a set of typical small to medium sized businesses actively involved in marketing. Their websites were reviewed to look at their HPRs.
In this cohort, there were 94 members who had links to their own websites. One had a HomePage PageRank of 5 - a representative from 4networking.biz. Nine member's websites had HomePage PageRanks of 4 but four of these had a franchise from a national company and therefore these four members have no control over their HomePage. 84 members (90%) had HomePage PageRanks less than 4. The average HomePage PageRank of the 94 websites was 1.7.
How does Google determine the top pages for a keyword search?
Google uses at least 200 signals in its algorithm (program) that puts competing webpages for a search term into the order that it feels best answers the search. These signals can be divided into:-
- On-page factors - the visible content and underlying coding.
- Off-page factors - the links from other websites and pages.
Most search engine optimization experts, including the acclaimed group at SEOmoz, agree that off-page factors are more important than on-page factors. Links from other websites confer votes of confidence indicating that the receiving webpage provides quality information. The PageRank of a webpage is an indication of the value of the incoming links as recognised by Google. PageRank of webpages and anchor text of links factor into the overall Google algorithm. PageRank is on a logarithmic scale.
Initially, Google's PageRank related to webpages only but, over the years, it has evolved. Google now informs us that it takes into account the PageRank of websites: This is best represented by the HomePage PageRank (HPR). Many optimisers have become disillusioned by PageRank as there are many webpages with PageRank 0 on the top Google results pages for competitive keywords.
In a recently published study of nearly 50,000 webpages on the top Google results page for 1,000 in 5 countries, 94% had HomePage PageRank of 4 or more or they were themselves HomePages. That study provides compelling evidence that the top factor on Google is the HomePage PageRank of the website and that HomePages that are competing for a keyword are receiving a boost in their effective PageRank. The average adjusted HomePage PageRank (allowing for the boost) for the 50,000 top page webpages was 5.4.
Reality in SEO
There are several SEO programs and some optimisers that misleadingly suggest that any website can reach the top page of Google for any keyword it wishes to target. The fact is that the vast majority of small and medium sized business websites have HomePage PageRanks that are less than 4 as in the current study. Seen in the context that the average HomePage PageRank required for the majority of keywords is greater than 5, a HomePage PageRank of less than 4 severely limits those keywords that are in range for top page positioning on Google.
Averaged HomePage PageRank of the webpages on the top Google results page for a keyword provides a useful indication of competition strength for a keyword - keyword difficulty.
A website with HomePage PageRank less than three has virtually no chance of achieving top page positioning on Google with an internal page for a keyword with average HomePage PageRank around 5. PageRank 5.4 requires about 100,000 average value links. The average HomePage PageRank of the 94 4N members in this study was only 1.7 (about 120 average value links).
A good optimiser will explain a website's limitations to website owners based on its current and potential competitive strength and will maximise the potential benefits of the website at all times. No aggressive backlinking campaign to achieve PageRank 5 could succeed; It would be picked up by Google and the website removed from the Google index.
